AI Models · Open-Source vs Paid

Gemma 4 26B A4B Open vs Grok 4.7 Paid

Gemma 4 26B A4B vs Grok 4.7 compared — price per token, context window, multimodality, openness and which to choose. Can the open-source model replace the paid one? Full 2026 breakdown.

Prices & specs refreshed from live data · olud.ai

Open-model prices = cheapest provider via OpenRouter; official maker rates may be higher.

Gemma 4 26B A4BOpenGoogle
$0.07 /M input
$0.22 /M outputNo per-token fees if you self-host
TypeOpen-weight
Context window262K tokens
MultimodalYes
Self-hostYes
Grok 4.7PaidxAI
$2 /M input
$6 /M outputManaged API (no infra to run)
TypeProprietary
Context window500K tokens
MultimodalYes
Self-hostNo
Choose Gemma 4 26B A4B if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose Grok 4.7 if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

Gemma 4 26B A4B vs Grok 4.7 specs

SpecGemma 4 26B A4BGrok 4.7Winner
MakerGooglexAI–
TypeOpen-weightProprietaryGemma 4 26B A4B
Context window262K tokens500K tokensGrok 4.7
Input price$0.07/M · free self-host$2/MGemma 4 26B A4B
Output price$0.22/M · free self-host$6/MGemma 4 26B A4B
Vision / multimodalYesYes= Tie
Tool / function callingYesYes= Tie
Self-hostableYesNo (API only)Gemma 4 26B A4B
LicenseGemma LicenseProprietaryGemma 4 26B A4B

Price gap & when to choose each

27×cheaper per output token

Gemma 4 26B A4B is ~27× cheaper than Grok 4.7 on output tokens ($0.22 vs $6 per M tokens).

Choose Gemma 4 26B A4B if…
  • You want to self-host or run on your cloud
  • You prioritize data privacy & control
  • You want the lowest operating costs
  • You are building open or reproducible AI
Choose Grok 4.7 if…
  • You want frontier performance through a managed API
  • You need the longer 500K context window
  • You value reliability & ecosystem
  • You don't want to manage infrastructure

Feature comparison

CapabilityGemma 4 26B A4BGrok 4.7
Open weights (downloadable)✓✗
Self-hostable✓✗
Runs fully offline✓✗
Vision / multimodal✓✓
Tool / function calling✓✓
1M+ context window✗✗

Benchmarks: Gemma 4 26B A4B vs Grok 4.7

Independent benchmark scores measured by Artificial Analysis. Higher is better (except latency).

Gemma 4 26B A4B delivers 6.2× more intelligence per dollar.
Gemma 4 26B A4B
Grok 4.7
Intelligence index
16.7
46.4
Coding index
39.3
–
GPQA
79.2%
–
Humanity's Last Exam
19.3%
43.1%
Long Context Reasoning
65.7%
76.7%
SciCode
40%
57.4%
IFBench
72.4%
–
τ²-Bench
43.6%
–
τ-Bench Banking
12%
–
Terminal-Bench
39%
–
Terminal-Bench Hard
13.6%
–
Speed
59.9 tok/s
69.7 tok/s
Latency
0.67s
18.86s
Intelligence per $
95.4
15.5

Benchmark data by Artificial Analysis.

How Gemma 4 26B A4B and Grok 4.7 score

🏆 Best value & openness: Gemma 4 26B A4B (4.8 vs 3.2 / 5)
CriterionGemma 4 26B A4BGrok 4.7
Cost-efficiency5.04.0
Context window4.04.5
Openness5.01.5
Self-hosting5.01.0
Multimodality5.05.0

Scores come from live data — output price (cost), context length, open vs closed weights (openness & self-hosting) and vision/tool support (multimodality). Raw task quality isn't scored here; it depends on your benchmark — see the verdict.

What each model is

Gemma 4 26B A4B Open

Google · Open-weight

Gemma 4 26B A4B IT is an instruction-tuned Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) model from Google DeepMind. Despite 25.2B total parameters, only 3.8B activate per token during inference — delivering near-31B quality at...

Grok 4.7 Paid

xAI · Proprietary

Grok 4.7 is SpaceXAI's flagship model for coding, agentic tasks, and knowledge work, succeeding Grok 4.6. It is particularly strong at long-running software engineering tasks, verifying its own work, and...

Other models in these families

These variants are tracked but not compared here — one page per family keeps the comparison readable.

Other variants tracked
Gemma 4 26B A4B (free)Gemma 4 31BGemma 4 31B (free)Gemma 3 27BGemma 3 4BGemma 3 12BGemma 2 27B
Other variants tracked
Grok 4.6Grok 4.5Grok 4.20Grok 4.3Grok 4.3 (batch)Grok 4.20 Multi-AgentGrok Build 0.1

Frequently asked questions

Is Gemma 4 26B A4B as good as Grok 4.7?

Gemma 4 26B A4B is open-weight and competitive on many tasks, but Grok 4.7 may still lead on the hardest reasoning and agentic work. The gap keeps narrowing — benchmark both on your actual use case before deciding.

Can I run Gemma 4 26B A4B locally?

Yes. Gemma 4 26B A4B has open weights, so you can self-host it on your own GPUs or run it via a low-cost API. Grok 4.7 is API-only and cannot be self-hosted.

How much cheaper is Gemma 4 26B A4B?

Gemma 4 26B A4B costs $0.22/M output vs $6/M for Grok 4.7 — roughly 27x cheaper via API, and free if you self-host.

Gemma 4 26B A4B vs Grok 4.7 — which should I pick in 2026?

Choose Gemma 4 26B A4B if you want to self-host, keep your data private and skip per-token fees — it's open-weight and runs on your own hardware. Choose Grok 4.7 if you want frontier capability through a managed API with zero infrastructure to run.

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